Plans for a country park near the childhood home of E. M. Forster should go back to the drawing board, councillors have said.

At a recent meeting, Stevenage Borough Council's planning committee voted to defer a decision on St Nicholas Meadows – a proposed 38 hectare country park to accompany 800 new homes north of the town.

Actress Emma Thompson has previously spoken out against the plans for homes and a country park.

She said: "To destroy beautiful countryside in aid of a car park is bad enough but to destroy countryside with such a heritage and of such value to the economy in terms of tourism is sheer madness.

"It has to be re-thought."

Councillor Teresa Callaghan (Lab, Martins Wood) warned her colleagues there is "one opportunity to get it right" on the layout and landscaping of the new country park.

She said: "I really welcome the country park, trying to make this land accessible to everyone in Stevenage, which it currently is not.

"I do think we have this one opportunity to get it right and it is a really really important part of the north of Stevenage."

Cllr Callaghan said she has concerns about a plan to use 25,000 cubic metres of soil from the housing development to create a "mound" in the park, which Stevenage Borough Council officers said would not appear as a hill but instead a more gradual slope.

"Being somebody who lives in a relatively new build, I know in my garden particularly I have all sorts of waste," said Cllr Callaghan.

"I've got a big concern that the developers will use this as a cheaper way to dispose of waste from the development."

She added footpaths should be included in Weston Road which she described as "dangerous", and said the toilet block should be more imaginative because it falls in a conservation area.

Cllr Chris Howells (Con, Roebuck) asked whether the car park would be locked at night.

He said: "You are going to get all sorts of car clubs down there, drug taking.

"Is it going to have a height barrier down there, too, for larger vehicles and vans trying to get in there?"

Cllr Julie Ashley-Wren (LD, Chells) said: "I think I heard you say the car park was going beyond the size of what is necessary, then it was added it could be used as an overspill for the housing development.

"We're going to be using land which is allegedly a country park for the people of Stevenage for the people moving into the estate.

"That, I disagree with."

A Stevenage Borough Council planning officer clarified the idea to redistribute soil on the country park would help reduce carbon emissions and help to level the site.

She added a height barrier is in the plans for a car park, and said the car parking was designed to accommodate visitors to prevent them from "overspilling" into residential streets.